Web based communication of information with reconfigurable format

ABSTRACT

Internet/SCHA system of using an interactive device such as an e-mail pager to obtain information from a publicly available source, such as the Internet. The e-mail pager may send information in its native format to a service that acts as an intermediary. That service takes the information and uses it to assemble a request to the actual information source, such as a Web page being accessed. If a web page is being accessed, the request is in HTML, and may include personal logon information. The response from the web page is also in HTML, and this information is received by the service, and salient information is taken from the HTML file. The information is reformatted, e.g. according to a template, into the e-mail pager&#39;s native format, and sent to the pager. Another embodiment describes opening multiple pages, and assembling their content into a single web page.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

The Internet is a very powerful tool for transferring and obtaininginformation. Many new applications have become available since theInternet's advent. Just to name a few, these include electronicplacement of bids over the Internet, electronic determination of theuser's bank balance over the Internet, automatic registration forvarious services over the Internet, electronic shopping with anelectronic shopping cart, and various, virtually uncountable numbers, ofothers.

For all of the power of the Internet, it also has significantlimitations. The language of the Internet, HTML in its various flavors,can only be properly interpreted by a device which is capable of readingHTML. Many different plug-ins and additional programs can be used, andare basically used as HTML windows. For example, the various flavors ofJava, can enhance the Internet environment. Many companies have producedstreaming video applications, such as shockwave and/or animationapplications. These are basically shown as an associated application tothe HTML.

Much of the customization which has been done on the Internet is donefor the purpose of enabling more complexity, and more items to be shownover the Internet. However, browsing from a hand-held device has becomemore popular. For example, the Internet can be browsed from a cellularphone, from a PDA such as a palm VII, or other thin clients. Typicallythe way in which this is done is by forming a special web page for thosethin clients, which runs a scaled-down flavor of HTML that is optimizedfor such thin clients. Only those special web pages which are optimizedin this way can be effectively viewed. For example, any attempt to usesuch a system to browse a normal, unoptimized web page, may cause anerror, or may cause be information to be displayed in a way which makesit very difficult to effectively understand.

Other interactive hand-held devices, such as Blackberry devices andother devices which are optimized for e-mail and text messaging only,have no effective way to interact with the Internet. Therefore, whilethese devices are interactive in the sense that they can communicate andreceive information via Internet-like channels, they can only receiveinformation of a specified type.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

The present application teaches a system of using an Internet-awareservice to form a conduit between the Internet and another device whichmay be a hand-held device or any other thin client, or even a regularclient.

In one embodiment, a client which is capable of interactivecommunication, and more preferably a hand-held device, may be used toobtain specified kinds of information from the Internet. Requests aresent to a service. The service can be any computer which is capable ofreceiving requests, reformatting then into a specified form that isrequired by a web server, sending it, receiving the response, andreformatting that response.

The service will typically receive requests in some kind of e-mailformat, e.g. plain text. The service may return the responses to therequests in either plain text or some flavor of XML. The service can itsself be a web server or any other kind of service, and the servicecarries out translation in a way that enables obtaining information fromthe Internet, retranslating it, and sending the information to thehand-held device.

In another embodiment, the hand-held device may include the user'spersonal information, and which can be used to allow identification,e.g. login, to a specified Internet site.

Another embodiment describes effectively do-it-yourself Internet, wherea service is used to rearrange the content and information in anInternet page, and to display the new information to the user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

These and other aspects will now be described in detail with referenceto the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 shows a diagram of flow between devices according to anembodiment;

FIG. 2 shows a flowchart of an embodiment to query an auction typewebsite using a service;

FIG. 3 shows a flowchart of operation to query a bank;

FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of using this system with a general ecommercesite;

FIG. 5 shows a system of do it yourself formatting of internet content.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

An overall flow of the communication between the various devices isshown in FIG. 1. According to the system of FIG. 1, a service is used totranslate information between a hand-held device 100, and a web server120. The web server 120 is connected to the Internet shown as 119, butmore generally, can be connected to any publicly available source ofinformation.

PDA/pager 100 can be any thin client which includes interactivecapabilities. For example, it may be an e-mail pager, a cellulartelephone, or any other device which is capable of interactivelycommunicating. In one embodiment, the device may be limited to textmessaging. The thin client 100 communicates as conventional over achannel 105 to a service provider shown generically as 110. The serviceprovider can be, in the case of a cellular telephone, for example, aprovider that operates as part of the cellular telephone system. Theservice provider also communicates with a service shown as 115. Theservice can be a conventional Web service or other subscription service,or simply can be an interfacing program that is running on a computer atthe service provider's location. The service carries out certaintranslations, in order to communicate between the thin client, and theWeb server 120. The service provider also includes a connection to theInternet, as conventional for such service providers, since theyconventionally obtain information such as e-mail and Web content fromthe Internet.

While the embodiment describes the client 100 as being a “thin” client,it should be understood that this same flow can be carried out withother clients.

The operation of the system is shown in the flowchart of FIG. 2. FIG. 2represents the flowchart for a system where the client 100 is an e-mailpager, and the system is being used to change or make a bid on anelectronic auction site such as eBay. These same operations, however,would be carried out to exchange any kind of information with any kindof website.

At 200, the user makes the decision that they want to change or place anelectronic bid. In order to its start the process, at 200 the user sendsan e-mail to a special address, here called simply “Web Service” withcontent in either or both of the subject line and/or the body of thee-mail indicating the website and what the user wants. The detail may bewritten in plain English, and in this embodiment is parsed by a keywordrecognition system. More generally, the system may parse the plainEnglish words using any kind of plain English recognition system.

The keyword recognition system which is used herein takes advantage ofthe fact that only certain allowable operations may be carried out inthis way. For example, the e-mail may be sent to a special address thatonly accepts e-mails about operations to be carried out by the service.Only a limited number of operations may be carried out, for example,specified Web sites, specified banks, stocks, and others.

Therefore, when the e-mail says “I want to place a bid on eBay”, thenthe system can parse different words from this e-mail. First, it caneasily match the word “eBay”, and once doing that, it knows that thereare only certain things that can be done on eBay. For example, a usermay be allowed to browse eBay categories, do a search on eBay bykeyword, check on a previously made bid, or make a bid.

By looking at the remainder of the keywords, once recognizing “eBay”,and noting the categories above (browse, search, check bid, make bid, upa bid where I've been outbid), the system sees the word “bid”. Thisagain narrows down the options; the allowable things the user can do areeither check on a bid or make a bid.

The system may store a number of different ways of saying each one. Forexample, the system may store “place a bid”, “make a bid”, “bid on”, torepresent the make a bid option. The system may store “check (on) bid,“bid status”, “how is my bid doing”, for the other. The system thentries to match the words of the email, to the words that correspond toone of the allowed actions. The best correspondence is selected, ifpossible.

Also stored within the database is a probability, for the specific user,of what they will want to do. This may be based on the user's previousactions. For example, the user may 77 percent of the time, want to placea bid when they use the word bid. The system may also store globalstatistics of this type, in case the user's specific statistics are notavailable. These statistics may be used when the system cannot determineexactly what to do, as a basis for an educated guess.

For any of these, the system returns an e-mail saying “you want to placea bid on eBay, is this correct”? The user replies with yes or no toindicate whether the system has properly understood the command. If theuser answers no, then the system may return a numbered list of thingsthe user can do, based on its parsing. The user can then reply with anumber, for example.

At 210, the thin client, here a pager, looks up personal informationthat is stored within the pager database. For example, a PDA or otherpager may include a storage repository for information. More generally,the client may be any interactive-capable client that is capable ofsending and receiving information, and displaying results to a user. Thesend and receive need not be in real time; that is; the receive may bedelayed relative to the send by some amount.

This information may be either local, or stored on an on-line serversuch as “www.myPalm.com” or other. Alternatively, if personalinformation is not stored, then an additional interactive operation canbe carried out similar to those disclosed below. In any case, thisoperation returns the user's name, login information (such as password)and other registration information necessary for the specified site,here eBay.

The pager will request eBay for a list of its current status. At 220,the service sends an e-mail to the eBay site, asking for storedinformation. Note that this step is done totally independent of the thinclient. The service itself is interacting with the website, andreceiving information that will be later reformatted in order to send tothe thin client. The existing list of current status is received fromeBay, and parsed into its different parts. For example, the favoriteslist, the items previously bid on list and the watch list may all beincluded. If the user, under the “content” item, has specified moredetail about what they want, then this may narrow down what is actuallyretrieved, in which case possibly less than all of this information maybe accessed.

Other commands of this type may be, for example, “I want to bid on anitem that is on my watchlist”. This may be parsed to retrieve thecontents of the watchlist. Alternatively, if the item says, “I want tobid on an item I've previously been outbid on”, then the current bidlist may be returned, or only items on the current bid list where therequesting party is not currently the winner.

Again, the information is requested by the service, and then received bythe service. The service may parse and format this information in anydesired way. Here, the service may parse the information at 225 into atext list, with each item having a special number that corresponds to asession ID. The number should preferably be a relatively short number,since the user will need to use this number to take further action onone of the items in the text list. In the embodiment shown, the sessionID may be a01 referring to a first item, a02 referring to a second item,and so on. The actual content of the fields associated with item 1 mayin fact be the description of the items, received from eBay. Similarly,other item numbers such as a03 may be provided. This list, again in textform, is sent as the body of an e-mail to the e-mail pager at 230. Thisembodiment describes using alphanumerics to describe the items,providing approximately 50³ different possibilities. This may be farmore than will ever be necessary, so long as the return address can beused to determine which session is being referred to.

Again, each item has a number. In order to select one of these numbers,the user sends an e-mail back to the Web service. This can be a reply tothe previously-sent e-mail, or can be simply sent to an address relatedto numbers in the previously-sent e-mail. For example, the e-mail may besent to the address IDnumber@Webservice.net, here this may be thespecific ID number a01 being used. The web server looks at the returnaddress, to determine the meaning of the session ID. With the returnaddress, and the session ID, the web service can unambiguously determinethe item to be bid on. From this, the web service determines the item at245, and again sends an e-mail to the user requesting further details.

As part of the information received at 220, the Web service may receiveexisting bid amounts and other details necessary for placing the bid.The system might not have reported that information previously, but maystill store it. Alternatively, this can be individually determined at245.

Having gotten to this point, and the user selecting an item where a bidwas made but now is no longer the highest bid, the system may concludethat the user intends to up their bid. An e-mail is sent back to thepager at 250 that simply says “what new bid amount?” The user respondswith a dollar number at 255 which is again sent to the Web service. TheWeb service again receives this number, which may or may not include thesession ID number (here a01) in be subject line. This tells the Webservice that the user wants to place a bid of $xxx on the item numbera01. The Web service now has all it needs it knows the item, the amount,and the user's personal identification information. An optionalconfirmation may be carried out at 260 where the Web service says “areyou sure you want to place a bid of $xxx on <item one>?”, and waits fora yes or no by e-mail. If so, the system places the bid at 270 witheBay, and once receiving confirmation that the bid has been placed,reports that confirmation at 280.

On the eBay site, simply placing the bid does not mean that your bid isnecessarily high enough. For example, the bid of xxx might not be higherthen existing bids which already exist in the system. Therefore, theresults of the bid, such as bid high enough or bid not high enough arereported at 280. This may be simply reported as “you are the currenthigh bidder” or your bid has been placed but was not high enough.

The service may also carry out other functions once the bid is placed inthis way. For example, the service may monitor eBay at increments of say5 minutes, 15 minutes, or one hour, looking for outbid notifications.Since the operation is carried out with the server, other timed servicesmay also be carried out. For example, the user may send the service amessage saying “check the bid at every five minute intervals, and reportto me.” The system can parse this out based on any real time is toparsing system, and decide what it's been told. The server can easilycheck the bid every five minutes, and send an e-mail to the usersinteractive device.

Again, since the service is running on a computer, any function that canbe programmed in any language can also be carried out. Therefore, themessage sent to the service can be much more complex. For example, themessage can say “check the bid at every five minute intervals, andreport to me only if the bid has changed.” Any different combination ofpossibilities can also be programmed in this way. An advantage is thatall of the user interface is carried out using plain text operations.

The above has described placing a bid on ebay, but it should beunderstood that this system can also be used for many other purposes,including buying virtually any product on the Internet or others.Another example is for using this system to check on stock prices. Anexample command that could be sent to the service says “check on myusual stocks today, and report to me if any of them changed by more than5 percent”. A list of usual stocks can be stored in either the serviceor in the interactive device. The service can check on these for exampleat 10 minute intervals, and report by e-mail only those stocks whichhave changed. This shows the power of the format conversion system usedby the present system. Rather than point and click, this system allowseffectively plain language commands to be made.

An important advantage is allowed by the service that carries out thetranslation between the client and the actual web server that has theinformation. By providing this server, the client can access any sourceof information over any publicly available network, without actuallyhaving a device that can access the server.

Another embodiment is disclosed herein of using this system to obtain abank balance over the Internet. In this embodiment, the operation isshown for use with either a text based device such as an e-mail pager,or with a device that is capable of Internet browsing.

At 300, an initial e-mail is sent to the Web service, the subject beingbank balance. The system obtains the user's personal information at 305.This can be personal information that is already stored in the device,or entered information. At 306, the system determines if the informationis stored locally, and if so flow continues. If not, the user isprompted to enter this information at 307.

At 310, the bank information is accessed, by the service accessing theweb page associated with the bank. In order to obtain a bank balance,the user must send specialized information to the bank using theirspecialized web page. The web page may be stored, as a cached web page,and if so it is accessed at 315. If the web page is not stored at 315,the bank's website is called up at 320. In either case, the result isthe web page, and the user's personal information such as accountnumbers, passwords and the like. The term “password” as used throughoutthis specification may include any personal identifying informationincluding a password, a personal identification number, or some otheridentifying information.

At 325, the Web service arranges all of this, that is the personalinformation and the web page information, into a form of the specifiedtype and sends this form to query the bank's website at 330. The bank'swebsite once queried at 330, returns the desired information at 335.Presumably the desired information is on the first page returned,although the process can be continued multiple times if an additionalpage of information is necessary.

At 340 the received information is obtained in the HTML form and isreformatted into an XML form. A desired format for the XML form isapplied at 345, which will be returned at 350. If the returning is to atext based device, control passes to the left in the flowchart, and textinformation is sent in a specified form. If the returning is to abrowser type device, such as a PDA or a full-blown computer, controlpasses to the right in the flowchart, and the information may be sent inan XML form.

Information for both of the returned forms may be stored in thetemplates 370. Various forms of specified templates may be stored. Forexample, a template for a bank may be stored, for stocks, and alsocustom templates. Each of the templates describes the preferred formatfor the way in which information is returned. The template may be verysimple; for example, for a bank the template may simply say “yourbalance is xxx, of which yyy is available balance”. The variables inthese templates may be filled in from the information obtained from theInternet site. The embodiment disclosed with reference to FIG. 5 showshow custom templates can be made.

Since this system obtains the raw information and formats it accordingto a template, a limited form Internet browsing device such as a PDA caneffectively browser virtually any site, even those sites which are notavailable in reduced bandwidth/information versions. The effective ordesired information on those sites is located. That information may beconveyed to the user as part of one of the forms/templates.

Another embodiment, shown with reference to FIG. 4, is more optimizedfor use in a browsing type PDA, and can be used with the same featuresto carry out electronic shopping such as with a shopping basket on asite. Many of the general principles described above can be used. Ageneralized shopping form is shown as 400 includes the site name, whichcan be selectable from a list 402. The user selects the site name fromthe list, or types in their own desired site name. The user then typesin the search term and then actuates the execute key 406. This causesthe PDA to form the information into an XML (or HTML) form at 410. TheXML form is sent to the service at 415, which translates the form into aquery in a format that emulates the user requesting specifiedinformation from the specified website. This query is sent to thespecified website at 420. The website then returns results at 425. Theseresults are again parsed into an XML form at 430, using one of thespecified templates shown as 433. For purchasing an object, the templatemay be of the general form shown as 435 where one, two or four objectsare located on the screen with reduced size pictures of each, theheading information for each, and the rest of the information for theobject simply contained in an XML link marked <more> shown as link 436.If the user selects the “more” link, then additional information thatwas downloaded from the website is returned. Each returned page willsimilarly have a “more” link until reaching the last page at which onlythe “return” link is shown. The return link returns the user to thebasic view 435. In any of the objects, main view, an “add to cart” icon437 may also be viewed. In this embodiment, along the bottom of theview, a toolbar 438 allows selecting more results or changing the view.The changing the view for example may select a different format from thetemplates. Selecting this different format causes all further actionsfor the similar kind of site to be carried out using the new selectedformat.

The user can also signify checkout in the toolbar. When the usersignifies checkout, the information from the service representing thesimulated shopping cart is sent to the website, initiating the checkoutprocess. The website may return conventional shopping cart informationat 442, which is again parsed in an XML format at 444 into a list 446that can be more easily displayed on the handheld. When the usersignifies go, (448) all of the user's personal information istransmitted at 450 to the service, e.g. information already stored inthe handheld. Alternatively, the user may be prompted for thisinformation. The service sends the information to the website at 452,which confirms the buy. The confirmation is returned to the service at454, converted to an XML form at 455, formatted and sent back as aconfirmation 456.

FIG. 5 shows yet another alternative system which is usable not only inthin clients but also in relatively more powerful clients. In thisembodiment, a web page may be customized by a user. The web pagecustomization software may effectively be a plug-in to the HTML readerthat places a toolbar at the bottom. One item on this toolbar is acustomized link shown as 500. Upon executing the customized link 500,the computer that is running the software analyzes the HTML page andparses it into different parts. 510 shows how the different parts of thepage may be parsed separately. The parsed portions may include forexample fill in values such as 511, drawing parts such as 512, and fixedtext such as 513 as well as plug-ins, e.g. Java or animations shown as514. The system also brings out a blank page which may be locatedside-by-side with the parsed page, or may be located in a separatewindow. In this embodiment, each HTML object may be separately selectedand moved. For example, if the variable 511 includes information such asa bank balance, the user can select this with their cursor, and drag it,as shown, to a desired area on the blank page. This makes an XML formwhich includes information from the other page. Any number of web pagescan be combined together to form the different composite parts of thecomposite web page 520.

The composite web page may be continually updated. In order to obtainany of the various parts, the system may call up the original web pagethat produced the part, obtain the web page, take the portion of the webpage corresponding to the selected part, and form the composite web pagefor eventual display. All of this may be done in the background. Forexample, the system may open all of these pages as real windows in thebackground, view the source, find the right part, import the right part,and then close the windows once the composite web page has been formed.

What this means, therefore, is that a number of windows may bedynamically opened, as background windows. Once the system has obtainedthe desired parts from those windows, they may be automatically close,with only the desired part being displayed on the composite page.

Effectively this provides do-it-yourself Internet, where parts of anHTML page are obtained, and those parts are used to form a compositeform which is eventually displayed. In this embodiment, the compositeform may be in XML, since that is easy to configure.

Although only a few embodiments have been disclosed in detail above,other modifications are possible. For example, the above has disclosedonly certain limited kinds of thin clients. It should be understood thatother clients, including personal computers, may be used.

The above has described the client being a machine such as a pager orthe like. However, these same techniques may be carried out over a voicetelephone type network. For the example, the user may enter theirinformation either by touchtone keys, or by voice recognition. Systemsof obtaining information from a telephone are well-known, such as bankby telephone type systems. Again, however, and analogously to the above,all of these require that be banks network have installedcharacteristics. In the present system, the telephone communication iswith the equivalent of the service, who places a query to the bank orwebsite. The website or bank must have some capability of beingaccessed. However, by using this service, the user can call, and usingvoice prompts and voice commands place a bid on eBay, obtain a bankbalance, or anything else like that.

This system may also be used for obtaining many other kinds ofinformation, basically too innumerable to specifically recite herein.For example, this system may be used to obtain current news stories, bysending the service a query “what are the top news stories?”. Any kindof query of this type may be answered.

All such embodiments are intended to be encompassed within the followingclaims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: in a computer, receivinginformation indicative of a communication; using the computer torecognize at least one keyword within the communication as being one ofa group of keywords representing only specific allowed operations thatcan be carried out by the computer, where each keyword on said group ofkeywords represents multiple different operations that can be carriedout by the computer that include actions including said keyword,determining at least one secondary word associated with said at leastone keyword, and where said at least one secondary word is specific tosaid at least one keyword, and is not associated with other keywordsother than said at least one keyword; in the computer, using saidsecondary word to select one of said multiple different operationsassociated with said keyword; where at least one of said multipleoperations is represented by a plurality of different secondary words,any of which secondary words will cause the same operation to be carriedout by the computer; finding a best match to the secondary word withinthe communication; and based on said finding, returning a response thatis indicative of a most probable action representing what a sender ofthe communication wanted to do on the computer, as represented by saidinformation indicative of said communication, based on said finding thebest match.
 2. A method as in claim 1, wherein said communication is aplain word communication in plain words, and said determine and comparefinds words within the plain words.
 3. A method as in claim 2, whereinsaid specific allowed operations comprise all of specified websites,accesses to specified banks, and checking specified stock information.4. A method as in claim 1, further comprising storing stored previousaction information indicative of what a specific user did, and whereinsaid most probable action is based on said stored previous actions.
 5. Amethod as in claim 1, wherein said communication is an e-mail.
 6. Amethod as in claim 5, further comprising, after said finding the bestmatch, sending a follow-up e-mail, said follow up email requesting aconfirmation that a user wants to take a specified action.
 7. A methodas in claim 6, wherein said sending a follow-up e-mail comprises sendinga list of different alternative probable actions based on saidrecognizing, and wherein each item on the list includes an identifierthat can be selected by the user.
 8. A method as in claim 5, whereinsaid most probable action is based on actions that are for manydifferent email senders and are not specific to any of said senders. 9.A method as in claim 7, wherein said identifier comprises an identifierto be sent in the body of an e-mail communication to request furtherinformation about one of the probable actions that is associated withthe identifier.
 10. A method as in claim 1, wherein said action commandsan external server to take an action more than once, at specifiedintervals.
 11. A method as in claim 10, wherein said action requires theexternal server to check a website at said specified intervals.
 12. Amethod as in claim 11, wherein website results are returned to aspecified destination when they vary by more than a specified non-zeropercentage from a previous request, and are not returned when they donot vary by more said specified non-zero percentage from said previousrequest.
 13. A method, comprising: using a computer to analyzeinformation indicative of an incoming communication, where said incomingcommunication is a plain word communication that allows at least oneoperation to be commanded by a number of different words in thecommunication; first recognizing at least one keyword in thecommunication, said at least one keyword including a name of a website;based on said first recognizing said name of said website, determiningat least one secondary word associated with said at least one keyword,where said at least one secondary word represents actions that can betaken on said website with said name, and do not represent actions thatcan be taken on other websites other than said website; storing pluraldifferent operation information, each said operation informationrepresenting allowable operations that can be carried out automaticallyby the computer based on content of the incoming communication, and saidallowable operations being arranged by website name, such that onlysome, but not all, operations can be carried out for each of a pluralityof websites; based on said analyzing, comparing the informationindicative of the incoming communication with the operation information,and finding a match between said incoming communication information andsaid operation information, wherein said match is less than a 100% matchbetween said incoming communication and operation information; based onsaid finding a match, returning information indicative of a postulatedmeaning of the incoming communication, and at least one result that isbased on said postulated meaning of the incoming communication.
 14. Amethod as in claim 13, wherein said incoming communication is an e-mail,and said returning information comprises sending an e-mail to a user.15. A method as in claim 13, wherein said finding a match comprisesstoring stored sender previous actions based on information indicativeof what a specific sender took as previous actions, and wherein saidpostulated meaning is based on said stored sender previous actions. 16.A method as in claim 13, wherein said at least one result includesmultiple different possible results, and said information that isreturned includes instructions explaining to the user how to carry outany of said multiple different possible results.
 17. A method as inclaim 1, wherein said keyword is a name of a website, and said at leastone secondary word comprises actions that can be taken on said websiterepresented by said name, and cannot be taken on other websites.
 18. Amethod, comprising: receiving first information indicative of anincoming communication into a computer; storing second, stored senderprevious actions based on information indicative of previous actionscarried out by a specific sender of communications; using said firstinformation from the incoming communication in the computer to find aclosest match to recognition information stored in said computer, wherethe closest match is only a partial match between the incomingcommunication and the recognition information stored within thecomputer, and wherein said determining said closest match is based onsaid stored sender previous actions and a recognition operation; andbased on both said closest match, commanding carrying out an operationon a remote website at a first time.
 19. A method as in claim 18,wherein said operation comprises checking a bid amount.
 20. A method asin claim 18, wherein said operation comprises checking a stock amount.21. A method as in claim 18, wherein said information is plain textinformation and wherein said closest match is less than a 100% matchbetween said incoming communication and said information stored withinthe computer.
 22. A method as in claim 18, further comprising using thecomputer to recognize at least one keyword within the communication asbeing one of a group of keywords representing only specific allowedoperations that can be carried out by the computer, where each keywordon said group of keywords represents multiple different operations thatcan be carried out by the computer that include actions including saidkeyword, determining at least one secondary word associated with said atleast one keyword, and where said at least one secondary word isspecific to said at least one keyword, and is not associated with otherkeywords other than said at least one keyword; in the computer, usingsaid secondary word to select one of said multiple different operationsassociated with said keyword; where at least one of said multipleoperations is represented by a plurality of different secondary words,any of which secondary words will cause the same operation to be carriedout by the computer; finding a best match to the secondary word withinthe communication.
 23. A method as in claim 22, wherein said keyword isa name of a website and said at least one secondary word comprisesactions that can be taken on said website represented by said name, andcannot be taken on other websites.
 24. A method as in claim 18, furthercomprising, based on said closest match and also commanding carrying outsaid operation at plural second times subsequent to said first time, andreturning information from said remote website only when said operationvaries by a specified non-zero percentage relative to an operation at aprevious time and not returning said information when said operationvaries by less than said specified non-zero percentage at said secondtime relative to said first time.